Abstract
Worry is characterised by thinking about prospective negative future outcomes, and is a key cognitive feature of anxiety. The influential Cognitive Avoidance Model suggests that worry involves visual imagery (mental pictures in the mind's eye) of negative potential outcomes, followed by the attempt to avoid such imagery due to its potentially aversive nature (e.g., by worrying in words instead). Here, we examine the role of imagery in worry by testing people with and without aphantasia - a profound weakness or absence of visual imagery. We show that although aphantasics (n = 59) are no different than imagers (n = 92) in their self-reported levels of day-to-day worry and anxiety, they possess a number of protective qualities: they are less likely to catastrophise in a catastrophising interview, and self-report being less threatened by their worries (in concern or cost), and less likely to cognitively avoid worrisome thoughts. Additionally, when their imagery deficit extends to all senses (dysikonesia), aphantasics are also better able to stop-worrying on command in a stop-worry task. Additionally, we examined the phenomenology of worry. We show that aphantasics report being less likely to worry via verbal-linguistic thought, nor visual imagery, or imagery of any kind (e.g., tactile, taste, smell, etc). Instead, aphantasics experience their worries as somatic symptoms, and abstract conceptual thought. Together, our findings demonstrate that while imagery is not required for worry, imagery plays an influential role, and lacking imagery provides a level of protection against certain worry traits.
What This Study Is About
Researchers wanted to know if people who can’t "see" things in their minds worry differently than everyone else. They explored whether mental imagery—the ability to picture things in your mind—is the "fuel" that makes our worries feel scarier or harder to stop.
How They Studied It
The team compared 59 people with aphantasia (the inability to create mental pictures) to 92 people with a typical "mind's eye." Participants completed several surveys and a "worry task" where they had to list everything that could go wrong if they moved to a new town. Some participants also had dysikonesia, which means they don't experience imagery in *any* sense, including sound, touch, or smell.
What They Found
The results were fascinating! People with aphantasia worry just as *often* as others, but their worries don't "spiral" as much. They were significantly less likely to catastrophise—which is like a mental snowball effect where one bad thought leads to ten even worse ones.
While most people worry using pictures or internal speech, aphantasics described their worry as "body feelings" (like a tight chest) or an abstract "knowing" that something was wrong. For example, people with aphantasia were less likely to find their worries threatening or "costly" compared to the control group.
What This Might Mean
This suggests that mental pictures might make our worries feel more "real" and harder to dismiss. Without a scary internal movie playing, the "impact" of the worry seems lower. This could mean that aphantasia acts as a natural "protective shield" against certain types of anxiety.
However, we have to be careful: this was an online study using a hypothetical scenario (moving towns), so it doesn't prove that aphantasics are less anxious in high-stakes, real-life situations.
One Interesting Detail
One participant described their experience of worry as "holding concepts but without words or pictures." It’s a great analogy: it’s like knowing the entire plot of a movie without ever actually seeing the screen or hearing the actors speak!